1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the storage of conventional image files on a frame-based storage system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image processing environments are known in which specialised image processing systems each control a disk array for the storage of frames of image data, known as a framestore. A framestore, together with the hardware or software which controls it, is known as a frame-based storage system. It is a very efficient way of storing image data.
However, in such environments there are often additional processing systems, such as personal computers (PCs) networked to the image processing systems. These are often provided because specialised image processing systems, and the trained persons who use them, are expensive and some tasks can be delegated to less powerful machines. However, processing systems such as PCs may not be able to access the frame-based storage systems because they are formatted in a way that the PCs are unable to understand.
Co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/947,708 discloses a method of presenting the frames stored on a framestore as files within a virtual filesystem. This allows additional processing systems to indirectly access the frame-based storage system to read frames. However, when editing has been completed on these or other images they cannot be saved directly to the frame-based storage system from a PC or similar machine. This necessitates a two-step process of saving the files in a different location and importing them onto a framestore using an image processing system.
There is therefore a need for a way of saving images from a PC or similar machine directly to a frame-based storage system operated by an image processing system, preferably without necessitating changes to the operating system of the PC.